Run, Lola, Run: Universes
by TarynWanderer
Summary: Snippets in the aftermath of each universe. Best read in order.
1. Don't Want To Leave

Author's Note: If you haven't seen 'Run, Lola, Run' turn back now! This and the two sequels are major spoilers for that wonderful film, and also, the stories will make absolutely no sense unless you've seen it. The Universe series aren't really fanfics, per se, because that would imply a story using the characters of the film- but it isn't that, with the possible exception of Universe 3. These are just my little blurbs about what else could have been said in the red-washed bed scenes, what else might have been going on the minds of the characters at the close of each universe. 

If you have read this far, I assumed you have seen the movie, so I can't be held responsible for ruining it for you right here. 'Run, Lola, Run' got me thinking about the differences between choice and fate, the chaos theory, and about how every little thing you do can affect something else totally, except of course, those events that are destined to happen. So if you were unhappy with the choices you made, could you do it again? 

Legalities: _Lola Rennt_ and all the characters and events therein belong to X Filme and a bunch of other people who aren't me. These stories were written for fun only and no infringement is intended. The Universe series is the property of Taryn "Jnco" Wander'r 

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Run, Lola, Run: Universe 1: Don't Want to Leave

A "Run, Lola, Run" fanfiction by Taryn "Jnco" Wander'r 

[tarynw42@hotmail.com][1]

Never, never, never Never letting go Never giving up Never saying no Just go go, never, never cease And do, do, do Do the right thing. -Running Two, Lola Rennt soundtrack.

"Are you thinking of leaving?" 

Lola stared up at Manni, his face blurry, and squinted. She squinted at him in the bright light pouring in on her from the cloudless sky. She could've sworn she was just in bed, squinting at him in the red haze, trying to see him. 

"Lola?" Manni said now. 

"What?" Lola managed to croak out. 

"Lola! Oh, please, Lola…" There it was again, that crease in his forehead. Lola sighed. He was going to get wrinkles before he was old. Manni was always doing that, pinching his eyebrows, pouting a little, when he was whining about something, cigarettes or something, when he wanted her to come to bed or get up or something. When he was worried. When he was worried about stupid things, like her father finding out about his work with Ronnie, or about some other guy that was bigger or stronger than him. It was adorable. 

Lola remembered it now, all of it. Manni rarely ever yelled at her. Only when he was really upset, when he was really angry. Then she would yell back. Usually loud enough to break something. 

The only other time Manni yelled was when he was scared. Really scared. The kind of scared that finds you shaking in a phone booth with a pistol tucked into your pants, yelling and screaming and going so fast the words blend together in a mantra of "agen" and "itzen". 

Like he had yelled at her twenty minutes ago. "What happened? You're always on time!" She still heard it. Still saw it in his eyes as he stared at her now, holding her head, blood trickling slowly down the side of her mouth and mixing with her hair, the same shade of red. 

If she had done it differently…she wouldn't have let him down. She would have run faster…if she had only run faster. 

If things had only been different…that guy on the bike. Why didn't she take the bike? Fifty marks to save her life…to save Manni's life…like her life even mattered anymore, when Ronnie found Manni wasting away in a Berlin prison, and found out that the cops had the money stolen from a freaking grocery store. Lola'd die in vain. 

Her father…oh why hadn't he just given her the money? The bastard couldn't open his heart for one day in his life. She yelled and she screamed and she cried, Jesus, she had cried- Lola never cried! She had stood there and cried and the bastard still couldn't love her. Like she was different from his other two children, that he was still leaving, because another man had fathered her. A man who hadn't lived to see her birth. You bastard! Lola had always carried around guilt wherever she went, wherever she ran, from her mother's alcoholism, Manni's impending death, now this? 

"I'm leaving you guys and marrying another woman." Bastard! Throwing her, his own daughter, out of his precious bank after she yelled, demanded, begged, pleaded with him to save Manni's life. Maybe, physically, she was never his daughter, but he would always be Papa…sadly. 

Not that it mattered now…lying on the streets of Berlin, an accidental bullet to the chest, outside a damned grocery store, staring up at Manni. Oh Manni…I'm sorry. I tried, I did. I ran as fast as I could. Manni, why didn't you wait for me? 

Manni cradled her face in his hands, forehead creased, shaking. "Lola?" His voice cracked, he looked up. The Bolle bag fell to the ground, he hardly heard it. He didn't see the green-clad policemen closing in slowly on both sides. All he saw was red; he could only smell cigarette smoke. And blood. Precious Lola's blood.

He slowly looked back down at her, his beloved. 

"Oh, Lola…" I'm sorry, Lola! I should've waited. I'm sorry. We could have run, Ronnie would never find us…I'm sorry. 

"I love you." 

Lola couldn't see him anymore. All she could see was red. She felt him, though, felt his arm around her, heard his breathing and the cracking of the cigarette. This was better- back in the bedroom, where none of this happened. Where she could be who she was supposed to be, not who she was. 

"It's rather a stupid question, really," Manni was saying. "Of course I love you. You're the best. Why?" He turned and looked at her. "Are you thinking of leaving?"

"I don't know. I think I have a decision to make." 

The bike. The bank. The bum…oh Jesus, the bum… 

Of only she had made those other decisions. 

Maybe in the next life, she would. 

   [1]: mailto:tarynw42@hotmail.com



	2. You're Not Dead Yet

Author's note and legalities in Universe 1. You really should read that first. 

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Run, Lola, Run: Universe 2: You're Not Dead Yet

A Run Lola Run fanfiction by Taryn "Jnco" Wander'r

tarynw42@hotmail.com

I wanna go I wanna fight I wanna rush I wanna run I wanna see you again Under the setting sun We will kiss we will laugh We will be a part Of what is said to be a union of the heart. -Running Two "Lola Rennt" soundtrack

"Manni?" 

"Mmm?"

"You're not dead yet." 

Manni hurt. Oh man, did he hurt. 

Strange, he didn't hurt a second ago. A second ago he was in bed, warm and cozy, with Lola. 

Then he woke up. From his thirty-second coma, and remembered he was still on the street, outside the grocery store…an ambulance parked a few feet away. 

Not an ambulance for him. An ambulance for someone else. The ambulance that had hit him. 

She had been on time. Of course, he had never doubted her. She was always on time…except that morning, but she made up for it. 

"Manni!" She had yelled, and he turned- right on time. With a garbage bag. Been to see her Papa, apparently. 

It was going to be fine, everything was going to be fine. For a brief, moment, he sighed in relief- Ronnie wasn't going to kill him. Oh thank God. I love you, Lola!

Then that damned ambulance, that damned bright orange ambulance, with it's stupid sirens- 'beeboo, beeboo'. Death by an ambulance. How poetic. 

Manni really hated paramedics. Doctors, too, hospitals in general. Reminded him too much of his first trip to rehab, when he was sixteen. He had snapped at more than a few medical officials in his time. Guess this was just karma. 

You know who else he hated? Ronnie. Damn Ronnie anyway. How did Manni ever get sucked into this? Small-time running, a few drugs here and there- Jesus, he got Lola running halfway around Berlin and here he is, hit by an ambulance! Ronnie could go…well, he was kind of scared of what Ronnie would do when he found Lola with the money and Manni dead. Of course, Lola would just give him the money, but knowing Ronnie, that was never enough. 

Oh, and Russians! Manni really hated Russians. Now, lying on the street outside a Bolle, staring past Lola's blood red hair into the bright blue sky, he realized that always sounded stupid to him. Two Grunewald streets? Damned Russians! Whoever heard of two Grunewald streets in one city? When they put the wall up, they couldn't just name the East side with original names? They didn't want anything else to do with the West side, why did they take all the names? Damn the East side anyway, the Russians could have it back. 

It wasn't her fault. Lola had run all the way here, probably pleaded and begged and cried for her father to get the money. It never occurred to Manni that she had stolen a gun and was prepared to kill her own father for him. Not his Lola. Lola didn't even know how to work a gun. 

No, it was the Russians' fault. The Russians with their damned double streets. And Ronnie. Why couldn't Ronnie launder his own money? And the paramedic. You'd think a paramedic would know how to drive. 

Oh, Lola, I love you. I waited, I did…I waited as long as I could. I'm so sorry I was so stupid and forgot the money…I shouldn't have blamed you. I'm sorry you ran all that way for nothing. 

Oh, Lola, you said you'd never let me die! Even if I was in a coma for months and months, you'd throw me into the ocean and wake me up. 

It's like I said, Lola, one day you won't know what to do, when you die…sooner. When _I _die! 

And now what? You'll take my ashes to the Isle of Rugen and cast them to the wind? And forget about it? Find some other super sensitive, wonderful guy to be with…probably a paramedic…or Ronnie, that smug bastard…

Oh, Lola, I'm so scared. I don't want to die. 

"Manni…" Lola cradled his head on her hands. I'm so sorry, Manni… I should've run faster…I shouldn't have stopped the ambulance…if only I hadn't bothered the paramedic for a ride and he hadn't hit that glass, he wouldn't have been in such a hurry…if only I had kept on running. 

The garbage bag hit the ground. 

"I love you, Manni." 

Manni couldn't see her. His eyes rolled back. He was in bed…where it was warm and safe.

"Manni?" She was saying. "You're not dead yet." 

No?

Maybe in a parallel dimension, where things had gone right…he wasn't. 


	3. What's In The Bag?

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Run, Lola, Run: Universe 3: What's in the Bag? 

A Run Lola Run fanfiction by Taryn "Jnco" Wander'r

tarynw42@hotmail.com

Love is just the only strain

That makes me live through all my pain

I don't know if your love is true

But I can't think of anything but you.

-Running Two _'Lola Rennt' _soundtrack.

"What happened to you? Did you run here?" 

Manni planted a rough, characteristic kiss on Lola's unresponding purple-painted lips. 

She stared at him, disbelieving. 

"Everything's all right now. Come on." 

What happened to her? Everything's all right? Did she run here? 

Of course I ran here, you stupid thick-headed moron! Why the hell else would I be panting like I'm in labour and sweating like a damned pig? 

Manni took her hand and led her down the street, away from the Bolle, away from anything else that might go wrong. Anything else that could've gone wrong. 

"What's in the bag?" He asked in passing. 

Lola glanced at him. "Oh…just some money I picked up at the casino. Nearly got myself killed." 

"Me, too," Manni grinned. It faded quickly. "Casino? You mean, you…Lola?" 

Lola smiled at him, for what seemed like the first time in a lifetime. "I stopped in…I had a few marks. I gambled it into a hundred grand…where's Ronnie?"

Of course she had seen Ronnie and Manni stumble out of the limo, the plastic bag wrestling from the bum sitting inside. She had seen Ronnie pinch Manni's cheek affectionately. But dammit, she had run across half of Berlin, found her father in a damned ambulance, nearly got hit by a lorry. She deserved this. 

"I found the bum, I got the bag back to Ronnie. He'll leave us alone. Oh, Lola!" Manni swept her up into his arms and spun her around. "Have I told you lately that I love you?" 

"Only when I ask."

"Well it's a stupid question, really. I do love you. You should know that." He set her down. "What's wrong?" 

The two walked down the street, hand in hand. "My father…and Herr Meyer…were hit today. I saw my father, though, almost right away. After I got the money. I hitched a ride on the back of an ambulance to get here on time, and there he was." 

"Is…is he alright?" 

"He'll be fine."

"Are you alright?" 

Lola looked up into Manni's eyes. She had run all that way…for him. For Manni. She did love him. 

She leaned up and pecked him on the cheek. "I am now." 

Manni grinned at her. "Let's leave, you and I. Go away somewhere. We've got one hundred grand, Ronnie won't be after us…let's go somewhere." 

"Alright…" Lola smiled broadly. "Where do you want to go first?"

"First, let's go to a soccer game." 

"You know, I've never been to a soccer game."

"I know."

"How do the rules work?"

"Simply, really. The ball is round. The game lasts ninety minutes. Everything else is pure theory." 

THE END.


End file.
